After a judge shot down their bid Tuesday to toss out a mound of evidence detectives amassed against their client last year -- including a 14-point checklist -- attorneys for former broadcaster Vince Marinello decided that he cannot get a fair and impartial jury for his murder trial in Jefferson Parish.

With the trial scheduled for Feb. 25, the request to move the trial to another parish sets the stage for more pretrial hearings. Judge Conn Regan of the 24th Judicial District said he will hear arguments on whether to move the trial on Jan. 24, a month before Marinello is scheduled to be tried on a charge of second-degree murder. If convicted as charged, he will receive a mandatory life sentence in prison.

Marinello, 70, accused of killing his estranged wife, has been a fixture in New Orleans television and radio for more than two decades. His case has received wall-to-wall news coverage since his arrest 15 months ago on charges of killing Liz Marinello, 45, who was seeking to annul their marriage when she died.

Liz Marinello, a Children's Hospital respiratory therapist, was shot twice in the face Aug. 31, 2006, while leaving a regularly scheduled counseling session in the parking lot of an Old Metairie office building.

As a condition of his $750,000 bail, Marinello is confined to house arrest at his mother's condo, which overlooks the scene of the shooting.

"The case has gotten an extraordinary amount of coverage in all media in the metropolitan New Orleans area," said Dane Ciolino, a Loyola University Law School professor and criminal defense lawyer. "If there ever was a case that would be appropriate for a change of venue, this is such a case."

Convincing the judge

Anticipating the request for a change of venue, Paul Fleming Jr. and fellow public defender Sam Scillitani have been cautiously mum in dealing with reporters since they were appointed to the case weeks after Marinello was indicted on Dec. 7, 2006.

They must convince Regan that selecting a jury from outside the New Orleans area is the only way Marinello will get a fair trial. Fleming made only an oral request for the change of venue and did not explain his reasons.

"We will, of course, follow that up in writing," he said.

Fleming also announced that the defense team will seek pretrial hearings on whether expert witnesses can testify on scientific matters. Fleming did not elaborate on what he seeks through what is called a "Daubert hearing," named for a 1993 U.S. Supreme Court decision. In such hearings, a judge must decide whether an expert's testimony is reliable and relevant.

In light of the new defense request, Regan said, "We're going to try the best we can to keep the Feb. 25 trial date."

Ciolino, who is not involved in the Marinello case, questions why the venue request wasn't made sooner; he considers it an attempt to delay the trial.

"Mr. Marinello is 70 years old," Ciolino said. "The evidence against him is compelling. If convicted, he will die in prison. A victory in this defense team to some extent is to keep Mr. Marinello free for as long as possible before he ultimately has to face this compelling evidence in trial. By and large, they have been successful in this so far."

While prosecutors could argue that it is speculative that Marinello cannot get an impartial jury in Jefferson Parish, Ciolino said that if Marinello's request is granted, a jury could be selected in another parish and moved to Gretna for the trial, or the trial could be moved to another parish.

Checklist stays

On Tuesday, Regan essentially cleared Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and New Orleans Police Department detectives of wrongdoing when he shot down Marinello's request to toss out evidence, including the infamous 14-point checklist he allegedly used in planning his wife's murder.

Armed with a warrant signed by a New Orleans magistrate commissioner, Jefferson Parish detectives found the list on a table amid other papers when they searched Marinello's FEMA trailer on Sept. 6, 2006, at 769 Germain St. in Lakeview.

At the time, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee said the list corroborated the meat of their investigation.

"Everything we'd developed to date was condensed in those notes," Lee said during a news conference on Sept. 7, 2006, the day Marinello was booked.

Through a series of four suppression hearings that began Oct. 26, Fleming and Scillitani sought to shield a jury from considering the list and other evidence, arguing that the detectives exceeded the authority they got through search warrants to seize Marinello's belongings.

They also argued that detectives improperly got two witnesses to pick out Marinello from an array of six photos of similar-looking men. Also, the attorneys wanted to suppress two statements Marinello gave detectives before he was booked with murder.

"Suppression of evidence has as its goal not the vindication of the defendant's rights, but deterrence of future unlawful practice by the police," Fleming and Scillitani wrote in a memorandum in support of their request to suppress evidence.

In trying to eliminate the checklist from evidence, Marinello's attorneys alleged "ill practice and wrongdoing" by the detective who got Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Magistrate Commissioner Marie Bookman to sign the search warrant for the FEMA trailer, according to a defense memo.

They also argued that the warrant did not specifically ask for a nighttime search, which is required, and that the detective, Donald Clogher of the New Orleans Police Department, was "judge shopping" when he sought out Bookman at her home to sign the warrant.

Probable cause

Assistant District Attorney Tommy Block, who is prosecuting Marinello, wrote in a memo to Regan that the detectives established probable cause in getting the warrant, a necessary ingredient in search-warrant applications.

The application included information alleging that Marinello test-fired .38-caliber Nyclad bullets at a Jefferson gun store in July 2006, and that he bought a fake mustache shortly before Liz Marinello was shot, Block wrote.

Liz Marinello was shot with .38-caliber Nyclad bullets by Marinello, who was disguised as a "scruffy" man riding a bicycle, police have said.

Regan found that detectives established probable cause in the warrant application.

"I believe there hasn't been any evidence that the police officers deviated from any procedure in getting Commissioner Bookman to sign the warrant," he said.

The defense attorneys also sought to suppress the gunshot residue detectives found in Marinello's car after it was seized on Sept. 6, 2006, before the police had a search warrant.

Detectives say Marinello, after shooting his wife, rode a bicycle away from the shooting scene to his car parked several blocks away.

Other evidence the attorneys wanted thrown out included two statements Marinello gave detectives. But Regan noted that Marinello waived his right to remain silent and that attorney Donald "Chick" Foret, representing Marinello at the time, was present.

Regan's rulings will be appealed, Fleming said. He has until Jan. 4 to apply to the state's 5th Circuit Court of Appeal, Regan said.

Paul Purpura can be reached at ppurpura@timespicayune.com or (504)¤826-3791.